| dc.description.abstract | Waste management in Costa Rica has been extensively worked in recent years; however, the
high amount of waste that is not being separated and recycled has lead the government to
find solutions and allow thermal treatments in 2015 through Decree No. 39136- S-MINAE
(Steinvorth, 2014).
The current legislation defines "co-incineration" as the thermal treatments of waste with heat
recovery produced by combustion, including the incineration by oxidation, as well as
pyrolysis, gasification or other processes of thermal treatments. At the same time, the decree
establishes that, in order to accept such projects, the SETENA (Secretaría Técnica Nacional
Ambiental) should prepare guidelines and procedures for reviewing the Environmental
Impact Studies (EIS) of said projects (Decreto Ejecutivo N°39136-S-MINAE, 2015).
Due to the limited knowledge that SETENA has about thermal treatments, the Tecnológico
de Costa Rica (TEC) was tasked to elaborate the necessary documents for the revision of the
EIS, through this Graduation Project. Therefore, this project is aimed to investigate the
processes, the ideal conditions and the final products of incineration, gasification and
pyrolysis. It will also show the respective legislation and different projects that have been
tried to be stablished in the country and finally, analyze which thermal treatment generates
less impact on the environment.
At the end of the project, two tools were generated: First, the guide to analyze the
environmental impacts generated by incineration, gasification and pyrolysis projects for
municipal solid waste and a checklist to facilitate the reviewing process. The guide contains
the description of the possible environmental impacts that can be generated by the
construction and operation of these projects, the mandatory measures by the Costa Rican
legislation and recommended measures for each stage of the project. In this way, SETENA
is expected to have the capacity to decide whether or not a thermal treatment project will
obtain environmental viability. | |
